Mode iN Gliany is undoubtedly one of the most unique and intriguing artists in the current electronic scene. It only takes a moment to listen to Amer Armor, released two years ago by Galakthorrö, to realize that we are listening to something very special. We wanted to talk to the musician from Rennes to learn more about his motivations and his deep connection to his homeland. We will be able to see him tomorrow at the Ombra Festival that takes place in Barcelona.
—Is the name of your music project a joke on Modigliani?
—Yes, of course, it was the name of my “SoundCloud” where I started posting different tracks and people re-blog them, and in finally they chose my name. I’m an art history professor, and I decided to use that name, because I was giving a lecture on the “School of Paris.” art style for my students, I could just as easily have called myself Egon Schiele or Ian van Eyck, but I like the paintings of many artists, jet especially the Flemish Renaissance with painters like Jan van Eyck.
—You first project was Cinématique Inverse, that you retook in 2024. How was the music you were doing back then? What happened with the project?
—The very beginning of Cinématique Inverse (the name actually comes from a 3D animation technique, a field I also worked in for a long long time) is, in a way, the adolescence of Mode iN Gliany, like Dadaism and Surrealism, but I still want to keep it alive.
—When and why did you decide to start Mode iN GliANY?
—When I ran out of space to put tracks on the Cinématique inverse SoundCloud :p (laugh) People reblogged Mode iN Glianyy more than Cinématique Inverse, but I must have started MIG in 2013/2014.
—There is not a lot of information about your music, although you have already released a few great albums, are you not very interested in social networks or just think that the world hasn’t discover Mode in Gliany?
—I have very few social media accounts; I simply have two SoundCloud and a Bandcamp page that I’ve had for a long time, and a YouTube channel where I’ve posted a lot of videos for my music. I recently created an Instagram account (and I’m still figuring out how it works), it must be about few months. I try to make an effort to communicate, but I prefer to focus on my music, my videos, and my work. I’m a fairly private person, but I’m very polite to people who want to talk to me. I don’t want to impose my music; I make it primarily for myself because it’s a necessity that balances my life. However, I have collaborated with several other artists.
—Are you influenced by the original coldwave? We are discovering a lot of bands from that time at the moment.
—I have many influences, but I don’t necessarily try to copy them. A lot of music educated me when I was young (Minimal Compact, Complot Bronswick , End of Data, Mecano, Norma Loy, Charles de Goal, Wire, Xmal Deutschland , Marquis de Sade, EN, Visage…) but I also grew up with Sonic Youth and the contribution of a sometimes noisy guitar is very present in my music and hybridizes my “cold wave” influences a bit.
—Do you prefer analogue or digital? How has your gear changed through these years?
—I evolve with the times. I really love analogue, but I also work with digital. My musical equipment is very hybrid and constantly evolving. I don’t keep my synthesizers forever, except for a few. I learn them, use them, and move on to something else; I’m always discovering new sounds. At the beginning of the 21st century, I worked extensively in electroacoustic music at university. That was when I created the Brume Records label with my friend Gwenn (Flint Glass), who ran it. My first electronic instruments were small modules designed for learning electronic music at the “Les Mélissons” school by Arp, a playful and fun approach to modular synthesis, onto which I added all kinds of guitar pedals. Since I’ve started performing live again, the equipment I use has to be portable and efficient, so I’m learning to work with smaller, more portable, and hybrid digital gear. However, my studio is equipped with analogue synthesizers, of course. I don’t work with software or samples; I like subtractive, additive, and FM sound synthesis, and also a lot of phase distortion.
—In you first references you make distinctions between tracks signed with your own name (if Boris Volt is your real name, I mean) and Mode iN Gliany, why?
—I must have made some mistakes when I first discovered Bandcamp 🙂 and my name probably popped up a few times. Yes, my name is Boris. Volt is short for my last name, which means “volant” (flying) or McFly if you prefer 🙂 A lot of people didn’t think it was my real name, which is why I shortened it.
—You released a couple of Eps with feminine voices, first with Kriistal Ann in 2015 and with LenoRe in 2021. Did you have songs that fit better another voice or just wanted a change?
—Kriistal Ann was one of my first collaborations, and she worked with many other people. She was quick and very responsive and a very polite person. This experience encouraged me to collaborate with others. LenoRe is the wife of my friend Eric from the label Circonstances Aggravantes, who produced these joint projects. I also collaborated with Justine and, of course, Irène de Milo, who contributed his voice to some tracks of Premier Mouvement (“Poussière d’étoile” for ex). his voice was also present on my first LP Kaneveden with Falco Invernale Records. But the one I’ve collaborated with the most with music and voice, is Zoltan Freitag, who develops a very authentic “minimal synth.” We even created a two-track EP under the name Sayat Nova, and I really enjoy working on music with him. And to answer your question, I don’t adapt my music to a vocal timbre or lyrics; it’s more that my music inspires peoples ( male or female) or not.
—Do you consider yourself a melancholic person?
—Yes, definitely wild, shy and reserved.
—In the titles of your songs, there are references to André Breton, Hieronymus Bosch, Schiele or Goya and you have said before that you work as art history professor. How much is art an influence in your music?
—It’s my job, or at least part of it, because I can’t live solely off the arts. But I’ll let you in on a secret: I wrote and sang most of my first lyrics to help me learn my lessons 😉
But I love singing the painting !
—I think that from Convulsive on, there is an improvement in your music, songs and atmospheres are better. Do you agree with this? If you do, what could be the reason?
—There’s an element of adolescence in musical evolution, questions we don’t ask ourselves enough for fear of hindering the creative process, but necessity must always be present for performance to be achieved. Perhaps there wasn’t enough necessity in Convulsive, which is very “surreal.” I haven’t listened to it since 2017.
—Kig ha farz, your following album shared the name with a dish from Brittany. How living in Northern Brittany influence your music?
—I’m Breton, and it’s a very good dish! Of course, my landscape influences my music. The weather is constantly changing in Brittany; the wind blows along the coast, sculpting strange shapes in the rocks. I love walking alone on the beaches in winter or getting lost on my Breton islands, and melodies arrive in my head with the white swell of the sea foam.
—After very prolific years, you released nothing during 2019 and only an EP in 2020. Were you focussed on other projects?
—I’m always releasing material, but it doesn’t always get released on records. For some labels, it takes a year between an artist’s production and the pressing of a record! This means you can be ahead of the curve or behind. I can release things on other formats like videos, in the form of improvisations, music videos… I think in 2019 I was still working on the duo project “Premier Mouvement,” which definitively ended last year. Right now, I’m reviving my OKNHO project with my old friend Gwenn (also from Brittany) from Flint Glass, and we did our first live show on Friday, November 28th in Paris. I really like this project, which has a slightly more industrial feel than Mode iN Gliany.
—I would say that Nigelle de Damas from 2022 is the most experimental and risky album that you have released. After so many EPs and albums, is difficult not to repeat oneself?
—Yes, it’s difficult not to repeat yourself, which is why you have to evolve. But often my compositions and lyrics depend on my mood, my surroundings, and there can be just as many “synth-pop” and “minimal synth” influences as there are industrial dissonances :p I’d like to make music that doesn’t yet exist; I’d like to have never heard a single piece of music in my life and start all over again from scratch.
—You recorded an album and an EP for Galakthorrö label run by the couple from Haus Arafna. How was working with them? Did you compose the album in a different way thinking that it was going to be released in that label?
—At Galakthorrö, I submit several pieces, and they choose the ones they feel are best suited to their label. This also allowed me to meet some members of their label, like Aska and Te/dis, who came to see me at WGT this year. I also collaborated with Herman Kopp on the illustration for a short film by Germaine Dulac, “La Coquille et le Clergyman” (The Shell and the Clergyman).
—Last EP, from last month is called Strapadenn. how would you place this work inside your discography?
—A continuation of a part of my life. Et ainsi vont les choses… 😉
—Let´s talk about your side projects. There is Oknhlo with Gwenn Trémorin from Flint Glass that you mentioned before. With him you released an album in 2018. What more can you please tell us about this?
—As I mentioned before, we’re revisiting the compositions from this project and have decided to perform them live. We received a very warm welcome in Paris last Friday for our first live performance. Gwenn is a childhood friend; he was the bassist in my first post-punk band back in the ’90s, and we founded the Brume Records label together. I really enjoyed playing with him, and I hope we can continue and find an audience interested in our fusion of different styles.
—You also play with Iréne de Milo. With this singer you have been releasing music for five years, the last EP from 2025. Can you please tell us more about this? Honestly, I could not find any info.
—It’s also a more secretive side project; the singer from Irène de Milo will be joining me at the Ombra festival and I hope she’ll close my performance with me. Irène de Milo sings on the first EP I produced on Galakthorrö and on the track “Die endlosbAhn” which is on my first LP Kanevedenn from Falco Invernale Records.
—What are your plans for the future?
—I have a four-track EP finished for Mode iN Gliany; After the Ombra festival, I’ll have a short break and be able to get back to composing and working on an LP. I have a lot of unreleased material in the works that I need to listen to again and rework. I’ll also be working on the OKNHO project with Gwenn; we’re both motivated to create new tracks and perform live.
—What can we expect of your concert at Ombra?
—I’ll be playing a 55-minute set composed of several tracks from my own compositions, recent and older albums, and some unreleased material. It all depends on my mood. I very often change the setlist for my concerts; it also has to adapt to my visuals, which I create using 3D modelling in Blender and archival images, in a Dadaist, cinematic style often inspired by the aesthetic of my music videos. It’s a kind of graphic score. All black on white, never any colour… This won’t be the same concert as the WGT one. I’ve added new visual and auditory elements, and my last four tracks will be performed with Irène de Milo; we’ll adapt them to the Mode iN Gliany style, because Mode iN Gliany is the foundation of all my numerous projects. Every track I perform from my albums is different, and that’s what I love about live performance—there’s something different and unexpected in each interpretation. I’m composing more and more for live performance, which is changing the way I work in the studio.
